


the guard in the dark

by merelywren (mrflannery)



Category: The Village (2004)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-29
Updated: 2017-09-29
Packaged: 2019-01-06 11:08:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12210042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrflannery/pseuds/merelywren
Summary: Lucius found her one late afternoon, curled into a ball behind the wood pile on the edge of the village.





	the guard in the dark

**Author's Note:**

> The majority of this was written well over a year ago but I recently watched the movie again, forever one of my favorites, and got the urge to finish this. :)

 

It had been a dark and dreary spring evening when Ivy Walker woke to a dim light. She had been in bed for many days with illness and a headache at her temples that would not leave. She had barely opened her eyes in those days, any light coming in making her head pound in a vicious way.

The house was quiet when she opened her eyes on that evening. The Walker's at an Elder meeting and her sister on duty watching the children. Ivy rubbed at her eyes, thinking to rub away the film that seemed to have settled there but her eyes did not clear and her heart began to beat heavily in her chest. She stumbled out of her bed and reached a hand out to where she could very faintly see the dark shape of the door. She felt as though the breath from her lungs had be ripped from her and she held her hands in front of her like a shield and stumbled out of the room and down the hall to where she knew the front of the house too be, calling out for her father, her mother; anyone to help her.

She fell, tripping on a chair that had been sitting in her path and she cried out as her knees hit the wooden floor and she could feel hot tears running down her cheeks. She crawled her way to the door, feeling with her hands till she reached the wall and groping her way along the wall till she felt the handle and fell through once she had pulled it open.

The open field was before their house, stretching out towards the woods and broken up only by the vegetable gardens and the wood piles, but Ivy wasn't thinking clearly, didn't even stop to decide in which way to head, just stumbling down the few steps till she hit the grass.

She rose to her feet and started to run, the light in her eyes fading to nothing as she ran, arms reached out in front of her in blind panic. She would trip and fall and drag herself back to her feet and continue to run. It was a nightmare, she was convinced. Nothing was real and as long as she kept running time would pass and she could wake up she just needed to wake up.

With a cry pain she fell to the ground one last time. Her leg had hit something solid and unmoving and she rolled to her back and crawled away from whatever it was, getting as far as her heaving body would allow her before her body curled in upon itself and she was left to cry and cry till she woke. She just needed to wake up.

* * *

Lucius was brought out of his work by the voices outside of the smithing shop. It was Mr. Walker and his voice was frantic as he asked someone if they had seen his daughter Ivy.

Lucius put his tools down and went to the door, his mind buzzing and thinking of Ivy Walker.

He knew that she had been sick these past few days, and had been distracted from his work many times worrying for her. Making it to the doorway he saw the troubled frown on Mr. Walker's face and when he saw him standing there he asked if Lucius had seen her and he shook his head no, a seed of worry being planted in his chest.

"She's not at home in her bed, and no one has seen her. Please, Lucius, keep on eye out?" he went on to ask, before quickly walking away to ask the next person he saw if they had seen his daughter.

Lucius didn't stop to think on his actions as he walked out of the smithing shop, in search for the missing Walker girl.

He didn't have many friends, as quiet as he chose to be, but Ivy Walker talked enough for the both of them and she never pressed him to speak more like so many others would do. She let him sit next to her as a silent shadow and she made a point in telling him that they were friends, as if she took pride in the fact. And quietly, to himself, he took pride in it as well. She was fourteen, but a few years younger than himself, and the thought of her in danger made his breath quicken like it never did before. He didn't feel fear like the others of the village did, and to feel it now made him almost sick.

He went to each house, every building, searching each side in turn and found nothing. The hour drug on and Lucius could hear the other village folk joining in the search but he paid it no mind, focused solely on his self appointed task. Lucius was standing in the grass before the Walker's home, looking off into the distance with the worry gnawing at his stomach when he thought that the last place there was to look was in the woods. Had she really dared go there? Had she gotten so sick and her mind so muddled from illness that she wondered unknowingly into the one place they were not to go?

His feet led him away from the house and passed the gardens, each step quicker than the one before, not stopping to consider the wrongs of what he was about to do. He was going to cross the border to find her.

He was nearing the wood pile when saw her.

Lucius played the games with the other boys, foot races and such. But he had never before run like he did in that moment, upon seeing her pale feet just visible behind the stacked wood. He ran to her side and fell to his knees, reaching his hands to her shoulder to uncurl her, to make sure he wasn't witnessing the death of his friend. Her body jerked underneath his touch as if she were a frightened animal trying to get away from his invading hands and he whispered her name in question. Her face turned up to his and her body sunk under the the weight of her relief on hearing his voice.

Her tears come on rapidly and with great heaving sobs, she reached out her shaking hands out to him and without a second of hesitation Lucius gathered her up close. He felt as if all the pain she was feeling was leaking out of her and pouring into him.

"I cannot see. Lucius, I cannot see," she was repeating over and over in increasing desperation.

"What?" he said, so quiet it was barely a breath.

"It's so dark," she cried, gripping his shoulders with shaking fingers, speaking into his neck. "It's so dark."

The pain in his chest was killing him now.

Lucius closed his arms under her legs and around her back and stood up, and with calm and sure strides he made quick work of making it back to the village proper. He couldn't think clearly, his mind a mess of her words.

Someone had seen them coming and informed Edward Walker of his daughters discovery, for he came running at them from a distance. "Ivy! What has happened?"

"She cannot see, Mr. Walker," Lucius told him.

The same utterance that Lucius had made not minutes ago was echoed now by Mr. Walker. He was shaking his head as if he did not believe it and reached his hand out to his daughters back. Even with his voice near and recognizable she shrunk away from his touch, sounding as if it had physically hurt her to have something from the dark touch her.

She sounded terrified.

Lucius gave Mr. Walker a look of apology, not wanting him to feel hurt by his daughter’s refusal of him.

"Come, we need to get her to Victor," he said.

Mr. Walker ran ahead of them to find Victor in the village sick room, and Lucius followed after.

It was an animal sound that escaped her when they tried to pull her out of Lucius' arms, her hands clutching desperately to the back of his shirt and her arms tightening their grip around his neck. A litany of no's were escaping her and Lucius stepped away from Victor, shaking his head, not liking the sounds and doing everything he could think of to make it stop. Backing away to the door he pulled her impossibly tighter to his chest not letting anyone take her from him.

Her entire body was trembling in his arms and he was frightened.

"Ivy," her father spoke quietly to her. "You need to let Victor here tend to you, so we may know what it is that is wrong, and what we can do to fix it."

Lucius took a cautious step forward to one of the beds in the room and sat down on the edge, and Ivy whispered to him in panic, "I'll be lost, don't let go or I'll be lost. Please, please."

"I will not let go," he spoke to her, head bent to her ear. "But please, let Victor help."

After long minutes of silence she gave him a small nod, and turned her head away from the safety of his chest.

* * *

It was agonizing, sitting there in that room holding her, and watching as the people around them looked increasingly more hopeless. Lucius could see by their faces that there was nothing to be done for Ivy, that no one had an answer or a cure to her ailment, and for the first time in his life Lucius wanted to scream.

He bowed his head instead, breathing deep to calm himself, staring instead at Ivy's dirt covered nightgown.

They had peered into her eyes, had asked her if there was any light coming through, but there was nothing. Victor was talking quietly with Mr. and Mrs. Walker on the other side of the room, all of them grim and teary. There was a knot in Lucius' stomach and his grip tightened on Ivy.

Victor came over and knelt before them, laying his hand softly on her forearm, and she jerked against the touch. "Ivy," he said. "I'm so sorry my dear. But there is...nothing I can do. The damage cannot be undone."

It came to her slowly, and her body began to curl into itself as reality of his words were hitting her. She let out a piercing wail, covering her face with her hands and Lucius could do nothing but hold her through her grief. There were tears in his own eyes from her loss.

Her cries grew to anger and she smacked the hand off of her and rolled out of his hold, reaching blindly around her and throwing anything her hands touched. "Get away! Get away!" she cried throwing a candle and it's holder in the direction of the others, where she could hear them calling for her to be calm. "Get them away, Lucius," she begged him, her words broken by her anger and grief.

He knelt before her asking her quietly to stop. "They are away," he told her, and looked over his shoulder at them in uncertainty. She was asking him to keep them away and he would do as she asked, always, but he felt deep in his bones that he was overstepping his bounds, that he had no right to keep her own parents away from her.

"We mean you no harm, Ivy. You know that no harm will befall you here," he father implored, trying with all his might to keep his sorrow at bay. "Let us take you home, to rest. Please."

She was quiet again, contemplating his words as she crouched there on the floor. She was staring at Lucius with intent and it made his skin tingle, seeing her gaze and believing for a moment that she could actually see him before her. Ivy held her hand out in front of her, trembling, for him to take. "Take me home," she asked him and he took her hand in his own at once and helped her gently to her feet.

* * *

The journey to her home took time. Ivy was cautious and frightened of the sounds made around her but she calmed when Lucius was bold and abandoned her hand to instead wrap his arm about her shoulder, acting as a shield between her and the darkness. He guided her quietly up the steps and through the front door and that was as far as he could go. He had never been inside their home before and he felt already that he was intruding.

Mr. Walker came in but a few seconds after and told him to follow him.

Lucius blushed when he saw that he had been lead to her room and kept his eyes on his feet as he guided Ivy too her bed in the corner. He could hear Kitty in the house now, having just been told the news of her sister and she came barreling down the hall with their mother close behind.

It was loud then, making Lucius frown in discomfort and Kitty came forward and took hold of Ivy. He could do nothing but watch as Ivy recoiled and pushed her sister back, her own back knees hitting her bed and causing her to fall. She had her hands in front of her to ward off the presence of her family, with Kitty crying and their mother trying to calm her hysterics.

Mrs Walker turned to him then. "It is best you go now," she said gently but with finality and he nodded his head and backed away all the while listening to Ivy scream for them to stop touching her, for Lucius to make them stop touching her.

He felt sick.

He was not given the choice to obey her, to stay and help her in her cries and he could barely stand it. He made his way back the way they had come, dragging his feet like a man going to his death, feeling that he was failing his friend and that she would never forgive him. He could still hear her as he walked away from the house and he bowed his head in shame that he could not save her this time.

With no one to see, he let his tears fall.

* * *

Lucius' eyes snapped open when he heard the knock on their front door.

He had been laying in bed for what seemed like hours, not able to calm his mind and sleep and now he was fully awake at the noise. He rose up and heard his mother's door open and her hurried pace to the door. Lucius peaked out his doorway and saw Mr. Walker standing there in their living room, dressed in a robe and nightclothes.

He stepped out fully so they knew of his presence.

"Ah, Lucius," he said, looking relieved but tired.

"Sir."

"I came to request your help, with the permission of your mother," he nodded his head towards her before continuing. "Ivy has not been calm for several hours now and she calls for you almost constantly."

Lucius' brows rose at this news, sick at the thought of her continued distress and shocked that she would be asking for him still.

"My wife thought it not wise to grant Ivy her request but I can no longer stand it. There is nothing more she will allow us to do, and she will not take our help. I ask you, please, to help and comfort my daughter. For reasons of her own, she trusts you in this, and I support her in that trust completely," he told him, honest and smiling. "You are a decent and honorable boy, and I am not surprised that she turns to you now."

Lucius bowed his head to take a moment and let what he was saying settle on his mind. He would go to Ivy, there was never a question about that for him. He looked up at his mother with a question in his eyes.

She came forward and took his face in her hands and laid a kiss to his forehead. "Go. You are needed," she said quietly with a soft smile.

He nodded his head in a jerky manner and went back to his room to dress before following Mr. Walker out the door and into the night.

* * *

"This is not right! Not proper."

"I do not care what is proper, only that my child be comforted and right now we can not provide her with what she needs. Only this boy can, and if he is willing to comfort her where we are lacking than I shall let him! This is not about what we want or see to be right; this is about Ivy. She is afraid and cries for her friend. Do not deny her this."

Lucius was stood on the porch, not moving into the house after Mr. Walker. Their hushed argument was reason enough for him to want to keep his distance, out of respect. He heard them exchange more heated words under their breath to one another and he tired his best not to listen.

A few moments later he saw Mr Walker's boots come into his view and he lifted his head. The other man nodded his head to Lucius in a manner that suggested he follow. It was the same path they took to Ivy's room hours before and Lucius could feel his face heat once more.

Mr Walker knocked on the doorframe to the room. "Ivy, you've a visitor," he said softy to his daughter.

"Lucius!" she exclaimed from in the room, and he nodded and stepped to the side. Ivy was standing in her nightclothes with her arms outreached as if in search of something.

Lucius tried to keep his eyes downcast as he stepped into the room but Ivy came forward almost at once to meet him at the door, forcing him to raise his eyes to watch. She took confident steps forward and let her body fall into him when she was but a step away from him, letting out a choked sob and she was shaking again. "I don't like it in the dark, Lucius. Please, please don't leave me in it again," she begged into his chest where she had hidden her face.

His heart broke at her plea and his guilt from leaving earlier was back once more with force. "I did not want to leave, Ivy," he whispered.

They stood there in her room for many minutes as her tears dried and her sobs settled to a few noiseless hiccups. She asked Lucius in what direction her bed lay and he gently turned her towards it and watched as she raised her hands out low in front of her feeling the air till she found what she was looking for and sat on the edge. She held her hand out to him and he stepped forward with his head down again, taking it gently in his own and letting her pull him down.

"I cannot sleep," she whispered to him, clutching his hand in both of her own. "Every noise made...I can hear them outside my door. It is frightening."

There was nothing he could do for her and it pained him so. How terrifying it must be to live in darkness, how lonely it much feel. Lucius would have given anything to heal her, to give her sight again, even if it were only a speck.

"I will stand guard," he said, hushed and close to her ear. "Sleep now."

"You will stay?" she turned to him and asked, so hopeful.

"I will stay."

Ivy reached her left hand out towards the head of her bed and clumsily pulled her covers down, refusing to let go of Lucius' hand, crawling beneath the covers and forcing him to move further up the bed as she pulled his hand to her on top of the covers.

Her eyes were wide as she lay there in her bed, still afraid of the noises she could no longer see the source of. "Sleep, Ivy," he whispered to her and watched as her eyes at last fluttered close at his request.

Lucius sat there holding her hand as her breathing finally evened out in the peace of sleep and he carefully stood up from his perch on her bed to move the little chair in the corner to sit it next to her so he could rest his back. He reclaimed her hand in his own as he settled down for his guard, ever vigilant till his eyes could no longer stay open and he slept.

* * *

It was a very trying and difficult few days after the fail of Ivy's eyesight. She was weary and overly cautious of every sound and did not take well to sudden touches to her person. She was closed off and guarded.

Except with Lucius.

He did not know what it was, but she seemed to recognize him almost immediately, even before he could give her warning of his presence. It confused and pleased him in equal measure. It took many weeks for her to learn the layout of their village again, this time with just her steps and the feel of the buildings to aid her in painting a picture in her mind. One of the carpenters had fashioned her a cane within a fews days and she clung to it eagerly, as if it were her key to her new shortcomings and held it to her chest as if a shield against the things she could not see.

Lucius was there at her side almost constantly, not only by his own urge to be there, but by her request as well.

He had felt guilt at being the one she would reach for when she was in need instead of wanting the help of her family, but Mr Walker had pulled him aside and explained to him how grateful he was that he was always willing to give his hand in help to his daughter. He spoke again of his trust in her and her sound judgment of him and knew that Lucius would bring her no harm, would do anything to keep her from it.

It had settled Lucius' mind to hear it and he was more confident in his handling of Ivy now with the blessings from her father.

She was sitting outside of the open barn doors, on the few little steps present, of the smithing shop where Lucius did his work.

She called out a hello to him, assuming that he was there before he could call to her to assure her of his presence, taking a seat and resting her cane lightly against one knee, spinning it delicately with her fingers. He had bid her good morning and tried to busy himself with his work, but his mind was a mess of distraction, his eyes drifting to the side against his will every few moments to look at the girl sitting in the doorway.

She was smiling to herself, like she knew some secret the others did not. Lucius was always curious, but kept his thoughts to himself.

“I always know when you are near, Lucius. Even when you are silent,” Ivy said suddenly.

Lucious almost dropped his tool at her declaration but kept himself still even as his heart started pounding in his chest. It is an oddity that has been plaguing his mind since that first night.

“Do you want to know how I know?” she asked, excited, turning fully towards him on her seat on the steps.

His mouth moved but no words came forth, but it mattered little as she barreled on ahead of him. “Hmm, a shame. I shan’t tell you anyhow. You shouldn’t have bothered wondering.”

Lucius ducked his head down as he smiled at her silliness and her own self satisfied grin.

They were quiet again for a time, Lucius continuing his work as Ivy sat nearby, letting the suns warmth soak into her skin.

“You hover around me, like a palace guard over his charge,” she said, quiet as a breeze. “You move in a manner so as not to draw attention to your task. But I know. I know when you are there, even when you do not want me to know.”

His cheeks began to burn. How could she possibly know he was there, keeping watch from afar? Since that night at her beside he had felt a pull, deep in his chest, to be near her just in case. That it was his purpose now to make sure she was well, cared for, and safe.

“You guard me in my darkness. And l know,” she turned to face Lucius, almost looking him in the eye, “I know I will never be alone in the dark. So long as I have you.”

Lucius’ eyes burned, his chest tight with emotion and words caught up in his throat. He wanted to nod, to say yes, yes, I am here, my hand is yours to guide you when you need it. My feet yours to lead where you please. My eyes yours so you can look at the world once more.

But he could not speak. Where Ivy has lost her sight, he has lost his voice.

“And I have you, Lucius, don’t I?” she asked, quiet and almost painfully shy.

“Yes,” he whispered with absolute certainty, “You will always have me.”

She turned her face towards the sun, the greatest light she would never again see, and smiled at it as if she had won. 

 


End file.
